The Brandt Report is the first report of the Independent Commission on International Developmental Issues, chaired by

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

, published in 1980. The Independent Commission on International Developmental Issues was established in 1977 with the aim to review international development issues, with the former German Chancellor being selected as Head by

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ...

, then the World Bank President. The result of the 1980 report, followed by a second one in 1983, provided an understanding of drastic differences in the economic development of the

Global North and Global South Global North and Global South are terms that denote a method of grouping countries based on their defining characteristics with regard to socioeconomics and Global politics, politics. According to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Global S ...

. The Brandt Report suggests primarily that a great chasm in standard of living exists along the North-South divide and there should therefore be a large transfer of resources from developed to developing countries. The countries North of the divide are extremely wealthy due to their successful trade in

manufactured goods Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of the secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer ...

, whereas the countries South of the divide suffer poverty due to their trade in intermediate goods, where the export incomes are low. The Brandt Commission envisaged a new global developmental initiative that would minimize inflation and unemployment in the North while facilitating growth in, and transferring resources to, the South. It built its arguments on a pluralist perspective that combined social, economic and political considerations alongside more traditional concerns about national and international security. Aside from Brandt, others who served as commissioners included Haruki Mori, Joe Morris,

Olof Palme Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until as ...

, Peter G. Peterson, and Shridath Ramphal. The Brandt Line

The Brandt Line is a visual depiction of the North-South divide between their economies, based on

GDP per capita This is a list of countries by nominal GDP per capita. GDP per capita is the total value of a country's finished goods and services (gross domestic product) divided by its total population (per capita). Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is ...

, proposed by Willy Brandt in the 1980s. It encircles the world at a latitude of 30° N, passing between North and Central America, north of Africa, the Middle East and most of East Asia, but lowered towards the south to include Japan, Australia, and New Zealand above the line. Roughly twenty years after the publication of the Brandt Commission's first report, it was updated by James Quilligan, who was Information Director for the Brandt Commission between 1980 and 1987. His updated report was called "The Brandt Equation."

References

External links

STWR - The Brandt ReportThe Brandt Equation
{{South-South Economic geography History of international development Economic inequality Willy Brandt

See also

References

External links